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This week’s revelation of a scientific study that concludes former professional footballers are five times more likely to die from Alzheimer’s than the rest of the male population sent shockwaves through the game.

Levein perhaps more than most given his dual exposure of both vulnerability and responsibility.

Aside from the darkest personal fears that one day he too may succumb to the fate of men like Billy McNeill, Frank Kopel and Jeff Astle - all taken by the cruel scourge of dementia, now attributed to the repeated head trauma of nodding heavy leather balls - Levein must also cast a wary eye on the present as much as the future.

His role as Hearts director of football, which also oversees the Academy kids of rising stars, demands that he assesses these dangers in the perspective of the modern age.

Should he ban headers from Under 16 level and below? Or does the lightweight, water-proof design of the modern ball mean that the research published by the University of Glasgow this week reflects a historical issue?

The questions and uncertainty hang in the air like the kind of high balls that Levein used to launch himself at head-first with monotonous regularity.

And until the authorities and medical experts can provide more clarity, these worrying conclusions will continue to cast a cloud over the game as we all wonder what on earth can be done - must be done - to keep players safe.

First, reflecting on his own memories of heading those heavy wet leather balls as a kid, Levein resorted to the dark humour of a guy who knows his fate now lies in the lap of the Gods.

He said: “I think I’ll be in trouble, eh?

“I probably played at the tail end of the period when the ball weighed a ton and as I was going through my career the balls got lighter.

(Image: SNS Group)

“Even as a kid I remember heading the ball when it was soaking wet. I don’t know how many times when maybe I had concussion and just played on because that was the thing that happened.

“It is worrying. I’m hopeful that because the weight of the ball has reduced the risk is less. But maybe not, maybe it flies quicker and has the same impact - I don’t know enough about it.

“But I certainly know there will be a lot of players - particularly centre backs and target men - who spent their whole career heading balls who will be worried.

“It’s difficult to say if I’ve seen more of it personally as a former footballer. The problem is that because the people we’re talking about are well known you tend to find out more when they’re ill.

“Maybe somebody who went to school with me who I’ve lost touch with gets some sort of dementia, I would never know. But you find out about the players because football is such a small community in Scotland that you find out when anybody has problems.

“But there’s an element of this that’s a wee bit like boxing.

“Once you know the risks you accept that you are putting yourself in harm’s way and that’s the problem just now in football - people don’t really know the risks.

“If you step into a boxing ring you know you’re going to get punched in the head. So you look at it and go ‘is the amount of money I can make and the career that I have worth what the outcome might be further down the line?’

“You can gauge that, but in football the problem is you don’t know. This is quite interesting now because this is the first real study into it.

“There have always been rumours and I remember Frank Kopel’s wife talking on the radio about the situation with his dementia and saying there needs to be more investigation.

“I think we know why now, but it would be good to know more to help us work out the best way forward from here.”

And therein lies the immediate problem for Levein and his peers at clubs across the country who oversee Academies with a duty of care to the kids they rear.

He added: “It’s a really difficult situation because I can’t imagine football without heading the ball. It’s part of the fabric of the game.

“The thing is, and I’m probably not helping here, but one of the things a lot of our kids are not very good at is heading the ball. And I just feel now that trying to encourage them to head it isn’t a good idea.

(Image: SNS Group)

“Maybe getting them to head sponge balls for practice is a good idea going forward.

“In America they’ve banned headers altogether at the younger age groups, but I would like to know more because I do think the balls are much, much lighter now.

“That’s a big difference from what I remember back in the day of nine, 10, 11-year-olds heading soaking wet leather balls.

“Those balls didn’t have any protective coating on them that stopped them from becoming heavier when it rained. Now they do - and at the Academy age group they are playing with smaller balls now.

“I don’t know this for sure but I’d imagine when you are younger maybe the skull isn’t as thick and that might lead to earlier problems. I don’t know, but that’s the problem - no one really knows at the minute.